Welcome to Hyperion Records, an independent British classical label devoted to presenting high-quality recordings of music of all styles and from all periods from the twelfth century to the twenty-first.

Hyperion offers both CDs, and downloads in a number of formats. The site is also available in several languages.

Please use the dropdown buttons to set your preferred options, or use the checkbox to accept the defaults.

Don't show me this message again

Prophetiae Sibyllarum

Introduction

Prophetiae Sibyllarum has been one of the most celebrated of Lassus’s works since his lifetime. In 1574 the printer Adrien Le Roy, holder of the privilege to publish music for Charles IX, King of France, wrote to the composer offering him a salary of 1200 livres per annum to enter the King’s service as ‘compositeur de sa chambre’. The King’s desire to employ Lassus arose, according to Le Roy, from having heard the prologue to Prophetiae Sibyllarum: ‘He was so ravished by it that I cannot describe it.’ In modern times the daring opening, which seizes the attention by moving from a C major chord via G major and B major to C sharp minor in the space of four bars, has given rise to considerable discussion among music analysts, chiefly in relation to the opening text phrase, ‘Carmina chromatico quae audis modulata tenore’. At first sight this introduction appears to imply that the prologue, or indeed the entire piece, is chromatic; but as in most Latin poetry, the word order is subordinated to the metre, and here the word ‘chromatico’ describes the ‘tenore’, both in the ablative case. Thus it is not the ‘songs’ (‘carmina’) that are chromatic, but the tenor—the songs are ‘modulata’ (set polyphonically). In fact the tenor of the prologue is not chromatic at all, at least in the sense in which the term was understood in the sixteenth century: all of its melodic intervals are diatonic. The term ‘chromatic’ was frequently invoked in discussions of Ancient Greek music, whose theory had been known throughout the Middle Ages via the De musica of Boethius (c480–c524) but the practice of which was attracting much controversy in the mid-sixteenth century. Greek music theory allows three genera, the diatonic, chromatic, and enharmonic; but a notorious dispute in 1551 between Nicola Vicentino and Vicente Lusitano established that modern music could be written in all three simultaneously, and thus make use of all available intervals. It has been suggested that Lassus could have been present at this dispute, though there is no evidence to support this—but since his then employer Altoviti was resident in Rome, it is likely that he at least heard of it.

Partly the controversy, and the multiplication of possible intervallic relationships, reflects the fact that tuning of contemporary music had departed from the Pythagorean system expounded by Boethius, in which all the perfect intervals (octave, fourth and fifth, and their compounds) were pure but thirds and sixths were unpleasant, towards a system most elegantly codified by Gioseffo Zarlino (1517–1590) which treated thirds and sixths as pure ratios as well, the major third being 5:4 and the minor 6:5. This ‘just intonation’ system usually cannot be followed precisely in performance because the demands of tuning harmonic and melodic intervals purely are in competition, and also, if observed strictly, frequently lead to the music departing from its original pitch standard; however, for the most part the system produces clearly better results than equal temperament for chordal music.

Notwithstanding the intricacies of Renaissance music theory which it illustrates, Prophetiae Sibyllarum is one of the most arresting pieces of music written during the sixteenth century. Perhaps surprisingly, it dates from the beginning of Lassus’s career, possibly as early as 1555 but almost certainly before 1560. It was not published during his lifetime, the earliest source being a manuscript now in the Austrian National Library, which also contains the first of Lassus’s two sets of Sacrae lectiones ex propheta Job. The manuscript has a miniature portrait of Lassus as well as illustrations of the twelve Sibyls: it would appear to have been intended as a gift for Duke Albrecht.

There had originally been a single Sibyl: Herophile of Erythrae is thought to have been a genuine historical figure from the eighth century BC, though the earliest mention of any Sibyl in literature is in Heraclitus, from the fifth century BC, who names three, adding the Phrygian and Hellespontine to that of Erythrae. As in Lassus’s version, Sibyls were named after the shrine at which they spoke. Ancient Greece eventually listed nine Sibyls, with the Roman writer Lactantius (AD c300, but modelled on Marcus Varro, first century BC) adding a tenth, the Tiburtine. Sibylline writings were refashioned in Christian terms from the second century AD, and circulated widely as a complement to the Old Testament prophets who had foretold the coming of Christ; St Augustine mentions the Erythraean Sibyl in The City of God, and it is probably to her that the medieval sequence Dies irae refers in the line ‘Teste David cum Sibylla’.

The fifteenth century saw a revival of interest in the prophecies of the Sibyls, exemplifying the tendency of Renaissance Humanism to deploy aspects of the ancient world in support of a Christian message. The republication of Lactantius’s Divinae institutiones in 1465 was undoubtedly a major spur to this interest. The twelve prophecies set by Lassus include two more than any extant antique source (the additions being Europaea and Agrippa): in this he follows another fifteenth-century version, Sibyllarum et prophetarum de Christo vaticinia by Filippo Barbieri (c1426–1487), though Lassus’s ordering is apparently unique.

The thirteen movements of Prophetiae Sibyllarum are presented in a set of six pairs, with the prologue attached to the first pair. The pairs are linked by cleffing and tonality: the first, third and sixth pair have the standard cleffing pattern c1-c3-c4-f4 for the four voices (or soprano, alto, tenor and bass clefs in modern equivalents). The second and fourth pairs are in chiavette (g2-c2-c3-f3 or treble, mezzo-soprano, alto, baritone), and the fifth pair in ‘low clefs’ (c3-c4-c4-f5). Additionally the second, third, and sixth pairs have a flat signature, which the other three omit. These clef configurations are generally agreed to imply transposition: late-sixteenth-century music theorists usually advise that chiavette be transposed down a fourth, but theorists’ discussions of the low clefs are few.

Recordings

Orlande de Lassus was an undisputed master of all the vocal genres of the late Renaissance. This recording features the glorious polyphony of the Missa Amor ecco colei and Prophetiae Sibyllarum, one of his most celebrated works. With their immacul ...» More

Born of a virgin mother, he will sit on a shambling ass, the charming prince, the one who is properly able to bring salvation to the fallen: however in those days by chance many will make many utterances of great toil. But it is enough for the oracles to offer up one saying: God himself will be born great of a chaste virgin.

Behold, the days will come, at which time the eternal prince, showering fertile seed, will take their crimes from men, and whose synagogue will gleam with fresh light: who alone will open the sordid lips of the accused, he will be just to all, in the lap of the queen of the world may the king rest his legs, holy, forever living.

He will not come slowly, though in a quiet mind should be held this act. This in a mindful heart always he will place, whose greatness his prophets attest in great joy, who conceived in a virginal womb will emerge without touch of man. All works of nature this conquers; moreover he who does it rules all things.

Of tender years, preeminent in looks, in honour the holy virgin will nourish the king of the eternal army with her milk: through whom shall rejoice with full heart all things, and from the dawn of the world will shine a wondrous star: wise men bearing their gifts with praise will offer to the child myrrh, gold, Sabaean incense.

Behold, the joyful day which lifts black glooms will soon come, unravelling the knotted volumes of the prophets of the Judaean people, as is told by the songs of the people. They will be able to touch this bright king of the living, whom in human clasp an untouched virgin will nourish. Heaven affirms this, the glowing stars show it.

Now remain certain and true my new words, that were the latest prophecies of the coming king, who, coming in peace for the whole world, will be happy, as he willed, properly dressed in our flesh, humble with all. A chaste girl for his mother he will choose, who in beauty shall surpass all others.

As I contemplate I once saw a girl adorned with exceptional honour (for she kept herself chaste), by his gift and divine spirit seeming worthy, who in great splendour would bear a glittering offspring: the child, fair and true, of the highest Thunderer, who will govern the world with peaceful authority.

Myself I saw the highest God wanting to punish the stupid men and blind hearts of an insurgent world, and because crimes so fill our skin into the body of a virgin God himself wanted to send down from heaven the son, whom an Angel will announce to the nourishing mother, by whom he will raise the miserable from restricting filth.

From the body of a virgin will come the eternal word, pure, which will cross valleys and high mountains. He, sent still willing from starry Olympus, shall be given to the world a pauper, who shall rule all things with silent majesty: I believe and shall confess in my heart: from seed both human and divine he is born.

Truthful God himself gave these prophetic duties to me, so I could reveal in song the holy maiden who will conceive in Nazarene lands him whom in flesh the lands of Bethlehem will see as God. O exceedingly happy mother, most worthy of heaven, who will feed such a child at her holy breast.

I see one born of God, who sent himself down from on high, when joyous sunrises will bring the final days: the one whom the beautiful virgin will bear from Hebrew stock, on earth to suffer much from his tender years, he will nonetheless be a great prophet in divine song, seed of a virgin mother, truthful in heart of wisdom.

He will be the greatest born in flesh, and the most beloved, and the body of the true virgin the holy word will fill with the design, without taint, of the nourishing spirit: but he, despised by many, for love of salvation, will reveal the crimes committed by our fault: whose constant honour and certain glory will endure.